


Nerds With Privileges

by OnlyOneWoman



Series: Aces of Spades and Hearts [1]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Relationship, Awkward Conversations, Blushing, Books, Canon Divergence Characters, Deverry series, Falling In Love, Ficlet, First Kiss, Fluff, Forehead Touching, Friendship, Holding Hands, Longing, Lowbones, M/M, Nerdiness, New Relationship, Romantic Fluff, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Silverflint only briefly mentioned, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:51:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9671564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyOneWoman/pseuds/OnlyOneWoman
Summary: Since I'm a big fan of trying out more unusual Black Sails pairings and happens to have a weirdly weak spot for Ned Low, here's some asexual modern AU Billy/Ned fluff no one asked for :D (Silverflint is only briefly mentioned, but they show up.)If you're a fan of History Channel's "Vikings" and remember Tadhg Murphy's role Arne, or have seen this awesome actor in another role than Ned Low, "my" Ned will be far closer to those than the Ned Low character. And Billy is definately not a "Black Sails season 4 Billy".





	

”Hi!”  
”Hey there…”  
  
The hug smelled from fabric softener and a hint of tobacco. Billy knew Ned was an occasional smoker and even if the health freak part of him wanted to say something, he didn’t. Ned was a grown man and had not lived under a rock. Ned stroke back his hair and smiled.  
  
”Coffee?”  
  
It was their fifth date. Billy’d had butterflies in his stomache before the first and the little bastards still flaxed around. They’d found each other online, on a forum for history nerds of all places, and started their friendship with a fight about the 1700th century in Ireland and wheather the Penal laws set to increase Catholic influence had been a good or bad idea. Seriously, the level of nerdiness had been completely ridiculous. And so damn funny.  
  
Ned wore an old, green parka, wadded with woll and a knitted scarf in white that tucked his chin and mouth in, only leaving the nosetip free. Adorable. At least if you asked Billy. They’d not moved on to touch each other in public except for greeting and goodbye hugs and no one would look twice at them, thinking they were on a date, as they entered the old café. They ordered coffee – Ned with milk – and sat down by one of the small tables for two. Sadly it was Saturday and that meant a lot of people. None of them liked crowds.  
  
”So… did ye finish it yesterday?”  
”I did.”  
”What time?”  
”Halv past five…”  
  
Ned’s chuckle was almost mute as Billy handed over the book, fingers touching lightly. The paper cover was worn, Ned had read _Daggerspell_ about twenty times and to be honest, he’d not counted on Billy to finish it that quickly. Billy took a sip of his coffee.  
  
”I couldn’t put it down. It was so sad… Nevyn and the incarnations. I mean, knowing you have to live with that betrayal forever. It felt so cruel.”  
”Am I right to assume ye’d like to borrow _Darkspell_ too, then?”  
”Can I?”  
  
Ned smiled and leaned down to open his bag, putting _Darkspell_ on the table and Billy’s cheaks heated. He took the book, allowing his fingers to touch the other man’s hands just slightly longer than before. Ned looked around and then he leaned over the small table, pressing a soft, closed mouth kiss on Billy’s lips for the first time, his one seeing eye warm and a little teasing.  
  
A shallow kiss was often enough. They had joked about that coming out as gay was a hundred times easier than to tell someone you were asexual and fell in love with guys but didn’t want to sleep with them. To trust someone who’d promised it was enough, only to hear later on they thought you’d change. That you were just waiting for right person to make you ”open up”, that someone believing he hold the key.  
  
But there was no lock. Billy and Ned were just as open as they could and wished to be. Two men in their midst twenties and early thirties, living almost entirelt without sex for a long time and only longing for the one who would accept that no need for sex didn’t mean no need for love and closeness.  
  
The coffee cups were forgotten on the small table, as were the surroundings. Billy held Ned’s hands, warming the fingers in his large palms.  
  
”Yer not a kicker, are ye?”  
”A kicker?”  
”In bed.”  
  
Billy laughed quietly, stroking his thumbs over Ned’s knuckles.  
  
”I don’t know, actually. At least no one’s complained about it. Why?”  
”Nothing really. ’Tis just… Have missed sleeping next to someone.”  
  
Billy felt a warm feeling spread in his chest and he swallowed.  
  
”So have I.”  
”How long? I mean… Since ye could do that without…”  
  
Feeling pressured. To cross a line you didn’t want to cross. To lie tense and worried your dick would betray you and make the guy beside you question your nature. Because being asexual and in love simply wasn’t a real thing. It had always made Billy a bit sad, the way people had no problem with sex without romantic love, but romantic love without sex was seen as weird, even impossible. Especially for two guys. Billy bit his lip.  
  
”Years.”  
  
Ned’s eye got a slightly sad glance, but then he smiled.  
  
”So yer missing it…”  
”Yeah.”  
”Actually had one about six months ago, but he was drunk as fuck. Was so happy when he couldn’t get it up and asked if we could just sleep.”  
  
They both giggled. The shared feelings, the absurd ways of getting some closeness without getting in a situation where a no to sex meant a no to everything. Where hugs, kisses and cuddles weren’t a step towards sex, a promise of something more, but the goal itself. Billy loved to imagine sleeping next to Ned. Laying in bed together under the same cover, holding him. Stick the nose in his hair, the beautiful neck and just pull in the scent of him, deep in his lungs. Billy longed for a cuddle more than he’d longed for anything in quite some time. Maybe Ned was someone he could do that with.  
  
It was a strange thing, being in love. It wasn’t hard to fall in love for Billy. He’d been in love lots of times but mostly from a distance. He used to think of himself as homo romantic rather than a gay asexual. Closeness to another human being in the romantic way was something he craved for. Hugs and kisses, stroke someones back, feel the warmth of another man’ skin. Ned’s smile, his eye that seemed to have a hidden laughter somewhere in the bright sparkle, his accent… Yes, Billy would very much like to hold him close in bed too.  
  
”Kinda odd… When I came out as gay, people I knew were accepting and all… Well, at least those who mattered.”  
”But now they only think ye need to meet the right buck?”  
”Yeah.”  
  
Ned was four years older, going on thirtyone. Not that the age difference was anything to even talk about, but Ned had even more experience of not being believed.  
  
”Have had boyfriends, but it never worked.”  
”They knew?”  
”One was before I knew, so I guess we both just thought it was something wrong with me. The others… well, ye know…”  
  
He knew.  The disappointment. The feeling of once again realising that ”I understand” and ”that’s not a problem” meant ”I tolerate it for now, but I can change you, challenge accepted”. Perhaps those days were over now.  
  
Ned’s hands were warmer now, nestled in Billy’s over the books. A part of Billy wanted to start reading _Darkspell_ right now.  
  
”I felt so sorry for them. Brangwen and Galrion… It was, I mean you don’t expect a love story to end like that. Without really ending and then when he meets Jill…”  
”I remember cursing aloud during that part. In class.”  
  
Billy laughed.  
  
”What?”  
”Couldn’t put it down and I read it in high school, ye know. Me math teacher got pretty pissed and confiscated the book.”  
”Sadist.”  
”I went to me English teacher and complained. So she spoke to him and I got it back earlier. He wanted to keep it for two weeks as punishment, but me English teacher made him change it to one week without the book and one week of detention. Spent five bloody days doing math after school and me mom thought me math teacher was a pure tool and bought all the books currently existing in the series for me in Dublin.”  
  
Billy rose his eyebrows, amused.  
  
”So you read it anyway?”  
”Yeah. Mom has always known what really matters. Dad was less impressed so me mom decided it was best he didn’t know about me having the series.”  
”You hid it?”  
”In mom’s bridal chest.”  
”Sneaky.”  
”I’m a total nerd, Billy. Probably have it from her, ’cause I don’t think me dad has ever opened a book since finishing school.”  
”That’s pretty sad.”  
”Yeah. And the Deverry series is fucking good so that’s even more sad.”  
  
Ned was definately a nerd and Billy loved it. People without deep interests for nerdy stuff were boring and often had little understanding for other peoples level of fascination whatever it was about. Billy’s love for football – the European kind, thank you very much – and workout was something Ned didn’t share, as Ned’s love for amateur theater didn’t interest Billy, but it didn’t matter. What mattered, they both figured, was to understand and accept that something was truly important for the other.  
  
It felt so easy. Years of weight coming off, a window suddenly opened in a room that had felt too small for a long time. Realising you could feel this light, have a space to breathe in without being alone. Slightly chapped hands, a shared love of nerdiness and a deep longing for closeness on your own terms. Billy’s heart was fluttering, his throat a bit tightened and he couldn’t stop starring. Neither could Ned. Frozen in time by the small table, just holding hands over a thumbed paperback, seeing only each other and the coffee cups barely touched, getting colder and colder.  
  
”Can I…?”  
  
He said it first, knowing someone would ask sooner or later, but he was longing so much. Couldn’t wait anymore and as the question slipped his lips, Ned loosened a hand and moved it to Billy’s cheek to decrease the distance. Billy leaned over, hand searching for Ned’s hair.  
  
Closed-mouthed at first. The warm brush from Ned’s lips softened him, the welcomed hand gently rubbing his earlobe. Foreheads and noses touching. Four blue eyes, only three of them seeing, the fourth was artificial, thanks to an accident with a homemade arrow eighteen years ago. Some people had called it creepy and knowing that Ned had been hurt like that because of an injurie made Billy both angry and sad. When Ned told him, they’d not yet met or even seen pictures of each other, but it didn’t matter. Billy already knew Ned was the prettiest guy in the world. He didn’t need a picture to know he was in love. For the first time he felt safe knowing that a guy truly wanted him for something more than his body. And that this, just sitting here and being in each others company, was enough for now.  
  
”Oh, for fucks sake… _Hello!_ ”  
  
The bubble broke and they looked up. Billy blushed, but didn’t let go of Ned’s hands. John and James were standing by the table, both highly amused. James had a tray with two cups of tea and two pieces with chocolate cake. John smirked.  
  
”Only four tries, Billy. Are you going to introduce us?”  
”Uhm… yeah, Ned, this is John and James, my closest friends. Completely impossible to be around for more than an hour without being pulled into one of their fights. John, James, this is Ned, my… uhm…”  
  
He looked at Ned, cheeks heating even more and the man smiled.  
  
”Nerd with privileges. Pleased to meet ye.”  
  
They shook hands and James looked curious.  
  
”From Ireland?”  
”Dublin, yeah.”  
  
The situation was awkward, but in a friendly way and James tugged at John, who gave them another amused smile.  
  
”Well… Nice to meet you, Ned. James and I should go find a table, right babe?”  
  
James nodded.  
  
”Yeah. Nice to meet you. See you around, Billy.”  
”See you.”  
  
The couple left, John giving Billy a far from discrete wink and toothy grin before disappearing to a table far from them. Billy buried his face in his hands and groaned silently.  
  
”Fuck... I’ll never hear the end of it…”  
”They know about you being ace?”  
”Yeah, and they don’t question it, but John is a romantic sap and goes completely nuts when someone he knows hooks up with someone. He was sparkling like a damn firework and will picture our wedding before he’s halfway through that cake. By the time he’s finished his tea, we’ve probably bought a house, two dogs, three cats and a bloody goldfish.”  
”Ye forgot matching slippers.”  
  
They both laughed and Billy shook his head, still blushing. Their hands had already went back to each other and the bubble closed around them again, fixed by three seeing eyes and four warm hands. An eyelash had loosened from Ned’s eyelid and slipped down on his cheak. Billy lifted his hand, relieved to see that Ned didn’t seem the least uncomfortable and removed the small strain of hair from the thin skin below the artificial eye.  
  
”Billy...”  
”Yeah?”  
”I think we’re pretty fucked.”  
  
Laughs. Bright eyes, blushing cheeks. Hands unable to stop searching. Just _knowing._  
  
**THE END**


End file.
